For the purposes of this specification, the term “commute” is given the Merriam-Webster meaning—“to travel regularly to and from a place and especially between where you live and where you work”.
The main beneficial forms of travel are cycling, running, walking and public transport. The main benefits are exercise, reducing road congestion and reducing emissions. Cycling is considered to have the ideal mix of vehicle-based speed and human-powered health and environmental benefits. A significant cost borne by employers, health insurers and state health systems relates to illnesses associated with a sedentary lifestyle. There is arguably a global obesity epidemic. For example, Monash University states that obesity is the most serious health issue facing the developed world. Further, mental and stress-related illnesses are on the rise as increasing populations, decreasing resources and technological advances create more competitive, faster-paced societies. It is proposed that healthy and fit people work harder, take fewer sick days, are less of a drain on the health system, have a greater sense of well-being and contribute more to their families and society.
It is general knowledge that regular exercise is fundamental for good health, however as people get busier and more reliant on technology they often neglect to exercise, even though exercise can usually be incorporated into peoples' everyday routine. While flexible, remote working is being adopted more widely, the majority of workers still commute daily to their place of work. This commute time represents a significant untapped resource—people should be encouraged to spend it exercising, rather than just travelling.
Efforts have been made regularly to encourage the use of bicycles by commuters, especially where distances for walking or running (or even swimming partly) to work are impractical. The City of Brisbane, following the lead of certain European cities, has implemented a system of making bicycles available for hire to anyone in the central business area and nearby environs wishing to undertake a short trip. However, this pay-as-you-go initiative does not provide incentive to use bicycles for the actual commute to and from work.
Although cyclists are not bound to follow any particular route into an area of a city such as its central business district (CBD), more and more cities are developing designated, dedicated, or purpose-built bike-ways to facilitate cycling into their CBD, thereby reducing the number of cyclists on the roads and attendant risks.
Loyalty and reward schemes are well known to air travellers and shoppers. Airline loyalty schemes are based on distances flown and provide various forms of rewards of a material kind to their subscribers. Shopping rewards are based on money spent at the host store and may provide financial rewards such as discounts for further purchases, or more material rewards such as goods or holidays or accommodation when different levels of expenditure are reached by the subscribing shopper. In addition, it is notable that the reward-earning systems are specific to particular stores or enterprises.
Toll roads make use of transmitting devices mounted to vehicles to detect and identify them and their owners as they pass receiver stations at toll gates. However, these are for exacting a toll from the driver for the convenience of using the road, rather than rewarding a motorist. Often this discourages drivers from using the toll road, as in the case of the “Clem 7” Tunnel road system in Brisbane, Australia.
The Australian government has set a carbon emissions reduction target of 5% by 2020. Key to achieving this goal was replacement of coal-fired power stations by gas, but the huge growth in gas exports has helped increase the domestic gas price to the extent that replacing many of the old power facilities is no longer economically viable. Other measures are needed to enable the target to be approached, let alone reached.
The said government has planned a $3 billion “Emissions Reduction Fund” from which to finance “green” projects intended to reduce carbon emissions. There is also a national 15 year infrastructure plan, involving accelerated delivery of major roads and highways that it is hoped will reduce bottlenecks on currently gridlocked roads and highways. However, conventional wisdom suggests that bigger roads just attract more vehicles, so that the congestion cycle repeats, each time on a larger scale than before. At least a part of the solution would appear to lie in getting current road users to not use the roads or to only use them for public transport.
Australian cities are beginning to experience levels of congestion that were eclipsed long ago in other countries. It is clear that cities the world over need to implement measures that improve the health and quality of life of their inhabitants, limit further congestion and urban sprawl and, perhaps most importantly, preserve natural resources and avoid further environmental damage. The global financial crisis and ongoing issues in the United States of America and Europe reveal that (at least some) economic systems are unstable and overstretched. Given the huge numbers of people commuting daily, combined with the economic cost of healthcare, road infrastructure, pollution and climate change, there is a strong economic (not to mention social and environmental) case for privately and publicly (government) funded beneficial commute measures.
The smartphone application “re:route” provides London commuters and other travellers with a trip-planning platform whereby the user inputs his starting point and destination addresses and the app suggests different routes and modes of travel for the user to choose in making the trip. The re:route app was designed to encourage cycling and walking. It uses a GPS-reliant system to record when the trip is completed and, provided the trip qualifies (it must be at least 4 minutes in length), awards 5 points per trip, which points then accumulate to the user and can be redeemed as discounts with participating retailers. According to an article describing re:route: “To use the app, travellers input their route's start and end points to discover ways that mix and match public transportation with walking and cycling; they can also customize routes based on goals—if they want to focus on maximizing calorie burn or minimizing carbon footprint.”
Shortcomings of the above known system are that the rewards offered are fairly trivial retail discounts or similar, in awarding points the app does not differentiate by kilometers/miles travelled, the app does not award points for using public transport, the app does not award different types of points depending on mode of travel (which allows rewards to be more targeted), the app does not record non-beneficial trips (for the purposes of comparison and building a data set) and the app does not specifically cater for employers and other organisations/associations/institutions to create an account in order to encourage their members to commute beneficially (or reward the organisation for doing so, for example by advertising their involvement to the public or by rewards/incentives issued by governments or other companies). A further shortcoming is that it seems to reward any qualifying trip, rather than focussing on regular commutes. This means that users are encouraged to use the app for purely recreational/health/fitness purposes, whereas the present invention aims to encourage beneficial forms of commute in circumstances where a harmful form of commute is the default option, or at least a tempting alternative. Where the user is simply going for a run/walk/cycle for exercise or leisure, the use of a harmful form of commute is not a realistic alternative.
The smartphone application “Calico” similarly encourages users in Perth, Western Australia to get fit and active by engaging GPS technology to monitor users' exercise regimes (by way of walking, running and cycling) and awarding points which can be redeemed with participating local businesses. The app monitors distance, speed and calorie consumption, among other things. The makers describe Calico as a “fitness app”.
A shortcoming of the above known system, in terms of encouraging beneficial commuting, is that Calico is confined to health and fitness. It does not specifically encourage commuters (or organisations) to swap harmful forms of commute for beneficial forms of commute and it does not provide a tailored system for doing so. It consequently does not address the congestion, infrastructure and environmental problems that the present invention covers. Like re:route, the rewards are retail discounts and offers by participating retailers. The app does not appear to contemplate the employer of the individual, the government or other organisations/associations/institutions using the app to enable more significant and sophisticated rewards (for example tax incentives) to encourage beneficial forms of commuting.
A known tracking system used by sports-people for calculating their distances and times is the GPS-reliant system known under the trade-name “Strava”. This system requires users to log in to it as subscribers and download the Strava software application or “app” to their GPS device. The GPS device could be a GPS-enabled mobile telephone or a dedicated GPS device such as a hand-held or wearable satellite-navigation or global locating aid, an example being the Garmin Edge 500™ GPS-based cycling computer, “for performance-driven cyclists”. The app enables the user to use his or her GPS-enabled device to track his or her rides or runs. Once the user has completed a ride or run, the user's monitored activity data is uploaded automatically to the website Strava.com, operated by the proprietor of the system. Alternatively, the user's data may be synchronised with the user's Strava account using a personal computer logged into the Strava website.
A shortcoming of the above known system is that although it provides users with motivational features such as the facility to set progress goals, it does not provide for the issuing of rewards, such as in the form of value, when targeted achievements are reached, in particular in the context of commuting, managing commuter traffic and encouraging participation in health-promoting behaviours. Instead, it encourages competition between users and for users to compare their performances with those of other subscribers. The emphasis here is on training and performance, rather than encouraging the use of cycling, running or walking as a commuting tool.